Aramintai

It's hard to explain without spoilers, but their behavior was all in-character, even the argument, it was bound to happen at some point. And in any case, they made up in the end.

It was all rather fast paced. The last big case started in episode 30 involving the emperor himself, and the focus was mostly on it, the leads didn't have much time to continue sulking around after that. And FL, after cooling down and realizing she was in the wrong, was quietly working behind the scenes to nail the villain in a clever way through subterfuge, but didn't want to get any of her friends hurt, so didn't let them in on her plan. They even started suspecting her turning evil at some point, lol.

She was reductuve in seeking justice, and she didn't really care about protecting herself if she got it. ML even had to tell her to stop ruining her own health to solve cases and trust her friends and colleagues, instead of doing everything alone. But she still did send them away that time, because she knew they'd disapprove of her methods and may get hurt themselves. Besides getting revenge, she really didn't want anybody else she cared about to get hurt because of her.

The villain will start to get increasingly more active after that first assassination attempt.
And I strongly disagree about your opinion about the romance, it's quite believable here, maybe you weren't paying attention to their small scenes throughout the episodes that started pretty early.

She knew that the villain was one of the ranking high officials, but when she went to the emperor to ask him about it he grounded her to her family's mansion. And even after ML saved her from being poisoned to death he still refused to help her. So it was just the final straw for her, she realized the emperor is covering whomever it was. Increasingly frustrated and without any other leads she had no choice but invent something drastic to lure out the villain. So she used the wedding as an opportunity to stage that poisoned banquet. It wasn't dumb, just reckless and ruthless, which is not out of character for her.
Was there perhaps another way to find out who it was? Perhaps not in time before he finally succeeded in assassinating her.
The only dumb thing here is the villain not assassinating FL back when she was a kid. She grew up absolutely hellbent on revenge.

If you watched until the end and seen the post credits scene - better to have the devil you know.

Yea, FL does something that leads to a big argument. She then cools down and reflects about it for a couple of episodes, while poor ML suffers and waits for her to come around.

2. Episode 28.
3. Episode 29. Up to episode 34.
3. No.
4. Yes. But after the credits there's a teaser for possible season 2 with a new villain who means to do harm to the leads.
5. There is romance here and it's important to the main plot, but it's not the main focus of the drama.
6. Depends on what you mean by that. But there's a few of these scenes here.

Give me the title, I'll check it out.

Sure, why not, it can have romance. Just no dumb soap, please. Genres can be whatever, just no stupid costumed high fantasy. Wuxia is fine.
Endings mainly have to make sense, but I dislike cop out open endings.

Decided to give it a try, but can't help but laugh out loud at the cringe premise - the lameass mask, the clearly not a man's body, or gait, or face, or voice, or strength, or demeanor...

What is this? Some sort of "I got kicked from the party and I reincarnated into Mulan", lmao? She wasn't even isekai-ed or reborn, but was spouting that tropey "this time I'm gonna do it right!" like a sad hikki hero starting a new life. She even suddenly changed her personality from a sulky shadowy general into a perky girly (but trying to pose as man) fresh recruit with (of course) max level skills. This is so cliche, I can't even...😂

Can you, guys, give me recommendations for good cdramas like this one? I rarely watch cdramas, so dunno what's been good lately. The preferred criteria:
-something not very old;
-no xianxia bs with fairies and immortals; something grounded, wuxia elements are fine;
-no reincarnation or transmigration into books/other worlds/the past (I'm fkn bored to tears with isekai genre);
-good acting and high quality sets & costumes;
-little to no dumbassery or cringe in the plot, has to be something mature like in this drama;
-not a soap opera with outlandish tearjerker plots just for the sake of it.

Not good? Why low rating?

There's more weight to lose on her? Jeez, these anorexic beauty standarts really do a number on people's perception what is actually healthy.

The right chancellor was corrupt, he was embezzling money from army funds and treasury. FL's father got wind of his schemes and so the chancellor plotted to kill him.

There is romance here, and it's not even slight, more like medium sized and plays an important part in the main plot. I dunno why the mods aren't updating the correct tags.

Her being allowed to execute the villain in the end is both contradictory and proves the point of this whole drama.

Why add that divisive emotional ML's argument in episode 29 only to still allow FL to do it? Sure, there were also other arguments that she had no evidence back then and wouldn't be able to restore her father's name, maybe even get severly punished. But that point about turning into a monster and having more nightmares really got everyone's attention. Then they showed that little boy in whom she saw herself and understood that revenge is not the right path to live for. But then when the villain royally fked up and the emperor gave a decree to execute him, it was FL who went to do the deed. I mean, where's the public execution? You may hate the emperor, but he coddled FL even here. And sure, the villain should have died for FL to move on with her life, but did it have to be her hand that executed him? I guess the script writers got lost in the sauce somewhere down the line. At least they added lines with FL telling ML about a dream she had later with her parents sort of saying farewells to her, so here's hoping her nightmares will end too.

As for the point of this whole drama - there's no justice to be found in the palace, the emperor upholds the law on a whim when it's beneficial to him, nobody gets justice when they should. So yeah, it was just right when FL threw these accusations at the emperor and quit. However, him coddling her by not properly punishing her either for poisoning the nobles, or trying to kill the chancellor the first time, and then allowing her to execute him in the end in private just again proves this point. And she herself was often bending laws when it suited her to seek her revenge and solve cases. Lots of self-righteous people here with flawed logic. I guess, it's what makes this drama a charming memorable mess.

The one about the cult babies and father's revenge - Auspicious Time Secret. Absolutely fked up what that family did to his daughter. The crazy cult exploiting people for money is also so so relevant today, reminds me of scientologists and the like.
The girl in the wall is the runner up - the case started small, but blew up into a whole other big case with a devastating follow-up resolution.
And while the White Asura case wasn't as interesting as some other cases, the crazy ghost woman was very memorable. She fked up her health to an absolutely devastating result. It's good that she got a nice closure ending at the end, with other concubines starting visiting her lonely house.

Just like all the rest of those cliche arrogant megalomaniac villains...he's gonna get served.

If you mean the main villain, I guess it's ok now that she's got evidence and the emperor's permission. Either way he should have been killed for FL to move on, but her doing it herself it did look contradictory to the point made in episode 29. The villain should have just gotten a public execution.